Let Your Fantasies Unwind

Chapter 6

I wake up the next morning, feeling refreshed, great even, compared to the last couple of times I fell asleep. I scoot my way over to my backpack and I grab a new day's worth of clothes. I close the door all the way and change into them, which is a light blue tank top that looks like a t-shirt without the sleeves, green cargo shorts, and the same red converse, but with white socks this time.

I scuttle over to the kitchen to find something small to eat, and I find some bread. I take a slice of it and eat it as it is. I go over to the sink and see that the dishes from the night before are no longer in the sink, and assumingly, have been put away. I wander over to his room again, and the door is open ajar. I look through and see the Phantom is slumped over his desk.

'Poor Erik.' I think to myself. 'He's going to be awfully overworked now that he has to deal with me, and Christine in a couple of months. And then the following year or so.'

I go back to my room and get my toothbrush with the toothpaste. I head over to the bathroom and brush my teeth for a couple of minutes, then return to my bedroom to brush my hair. I put everything back after I finish taking care of myself.

I fiddle with the books on the bookshelves, straightening them, and dust them off with my hands. I go over to the desk and push the drawers in, straighten bits of paper up, putting the pens and pencils in neat little rows, and finally throw away the core of the apple...or at least, what was left of it, since part of it has already decomposed. I find little things of trash and throw them away, like tiny pieces of paper, and huge dust bunnies. I clean off the bed-side table, sweeping the dust off of it and adjust the vase full of roses. I go up to the cabinets and blow off the dust.

After just touching the surface of cleaning the place up, I go to the bathroom and wash up, and then return to the room.

Five minutes pass and footsteps echo through the house. They come close to the room I occupy and I look at the door. The Phantom comes in.

"Be ready-oh." He sees that I'm already in my clothes, and well groomed. "How long have you been up, then?"

"Probably only about a quarter of an hour, or maybe a little more than that, but not long."

"Must have fallen asleep later than usual then." He mumbles. "Be in the living room in five minutes." He leaves dramatically, swinging his cape.

I hop out after him after a minute passed. I look at all the plants, and admire the woodwork of the house.

Three minutes later, he joins me in the room.

He starts, "First off, good morning."

"Good morning." I reply.

"Secondly, your duties. You are to clean up the house, and I saw you already had a head start of it this morning when I went in to check on you. Tell me, do you like cleaning?"

"If it means that I made it clean, yes, I do like cleaning, but only to a degree."

"Good. When you clean, you are to rid this house of the dust that has collected over the past...while, clean the dishes, and occasionally, the walls, again with the dust, and the doorknobs." He pauses. "You are to be up when I command you. Do you have a habit of being up early?"

"No, actually. Still a teenager, so it'll be more of, I'll be up when my brain decides so."

"Oh, a teenager? I thought you were younger."

"Let me guess, the height gave you that assumption." He nods. "As expected. Well, surprise, I'm eighteen."

"Back to the main point, you get up when I tell you to be, and that can be at any random point, so get all the sleep you can get in between."